Design of a chain flail mower for leveling rough terrain

Abstract

The flail mower is a piece of agricultural equipment that uses bladed attachments rotating around a drum to cut down bushes and grassy terrain. One major drawback to the flail mower is the rapid wear that happens almost immediately when any sort of rocks, gravel, or rough terrain are encountered. The goal of this project was to design and manufacture a prototype of a machine that could level rough terrain through repeating impacts as opposed to cutting with blades. The final design was a chain flail mower, a piece of equipment designed to level rough terrain that uses chains to repeatedly bludgeon rocks, gravel, and debris. The designed chain flail mower was assembled into an existing commercially available snow blower for testing.